Scottish Executive

Children

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children were subject to secure orders on the nights of 6 January, 3 February and 3 March 2001 and, of these, how many were not in secure units, broken down by local authority area in each case.

Mr Jack McConnell: This information is not held centrally. I expect advice shortly from the Secure Accommodation Advisory Group, which has been considering, amongst other things, what information is needed on supply of and demand for secure places for children and young people.

E.coli

Dr Richard Simpson (Ochil) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12162 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 22 December 2000, when it will publish the report by the joint Executive/Food Standards Agency Task Force which is examining how to minimise the exposure of the public to E.coli 0157.

Malcolm Chisholm: The report will be published following receipt, expected by the end of May 2001.

  The report is also to be made available on the task force website:

  http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/scotland/ecoli

Education

Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of secondary school children in (a) Scotland and (b) Stirling constituency have personal e-mail accounts at school.

Mr Jack McConnell: Local authority plans indicated that, by September 2000, 66% of Scottish secondary school pupils would have e-mail accounts at school. Conclusive statistics will be available when the results from the September 2000 School Census are published in the next few months.

  The information requested is not available on a constituency basis. Stirling Council reported that, in their local authority area, 21% of secondary school pupils would have an e-mail address at school by September 2000.

Enterprise

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14252 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 30 March 2001, whether it will name the companies assisted by the Defence Diversification Agency.

Ms Wendy Alexander: As I stated in my previous reply, the Defence Diversification Agency has assisted over 100 companies and details cannot be made public in order to protect the competitive position of the companies concerned. That position remains unchanged.

Enterprise

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14252 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 30 March 2001, how many of the firms assisted by the Defence Diversification Agency have reduced their dependence on defence manufacturers as a result of assistance from the agency and what percentage of their total business this reduction represents.

Ms Wendy Alexander: The role of the Defence Diversification Agency (DDA) is not to reduce the dependence of certain companies on defence, but, inter alia, to facilitate the transfer of technology into and out of the defence sector in order to help ensure UK industry remains competitive in the changing global market place. In so doing in Scotland, the DDA works closely with Scottish Enterprise, in accordance with the regional development strategies of the Scottish Executive. The information requested cannot be made public, as to do so might harm the competitive position of the companies involved.

European Union

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many times Scottish Executive officials have attended technical committees and working parties of the EU Council of Ministers as the lead UK officials since 1 July 1999.

Mr Jack McConnell: This information is not recorded by the Executive in the working records of such meetings and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what date it has been given by the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for the completion of the pre-emptive, foot-and-mouth disease-related cull of animals on farms in England which are adjacent to or within 3 km of farms in Scotland.

Ross Finnie: This cull has now been completed.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what directions and guidance it has given to local enterprise companies regarding the expenditure of the £5 million allocated to the tourist industry as a result of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Direction of the local enterprise companies is a matter for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local enterprise company will receive from the £5 million allocated for the tourist industry as a result of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Ms Wendy Alexander: This is a matter for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to determine.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to the use of mobile incinerators to dispose of animals slaughtered during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Ross Finnie: Due to the sheer scale of the number of carcases to be disposed of and the limited number of mobile incinerators that are likely to be available, the use of these is not a practical option.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the guidance, direction or advice given to (a) visitscotland, (b) Scottish Enterprise and (c) Highlands and Islands Enterprise regarding the way in which the additional funding for businesses affected by the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak can be used and, in particular, whether direct financial aid to businesses has been ruled out other than by way of a refund of the subscriptions to area tourist boards paid by businesses.

Ms Wendy Alexander: I refer the member to the answers given to questions S1W-14552 and S1W-14860.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David McLetchie (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement by the First Minister on 22 March 2001 ( Official Report , col. 877) that "we hope to be able to develop consequential compensation", whether it will list the measures covered by any such consequential compensation and whether this term covers compensation for loss suffered by businesses affected directly or indirectly by the current foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Ms Wendy Alexander: I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-14552 on 28 March 2001.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which its main priorities are from the 258 action points contained in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change .

Susan Deacon: The Executive’s priorities are for healthier people in Scotland and for a modern, responsive NHS which puts the patient at the centre of everything it does. The specific actions set out in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change will help to deliver these priorities to a defined timescale.

  We are providing the resources to enable the service to deliver what the people of Scotland need, when and where they need it.

Higher Education

Iain Smith (North-East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to help students under 25 with child care costs.

Iain Smith (North-East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to widen access to further and higher education for students under 25 who have their own children.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Students in higher education receive help with child care costs, regardless of their age. Support from the Dependants’ Grant and Lone Parent’ Grant is available to eligible students in addition to any bursary or loan entitlement. From 2001-02, students who receive a Dependants’ Grant for a child at school between the ages of three and 16 will also receive the new School Meals Grant. This will ease the transition from benefits to full-time study and will help all student parents on low incomes.

  From autumn 2000 funding of £3 million per annum has been made available to FE colleges to assist all FE students, regardless of age, faced with study-related childcare costs. A priority for these funds has been part-time students, particularly those from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. However, this has not meant the exclusion of resources for needy full-time students.

  Additionally, bursaries provided by FE colleges to students can include a dependants allowance which is given to students who have a legal or financial responsibility for a dependant partner, adult or child.

Local Government

Mr Keith Harding (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to assist local authorities to address the need identified in the Accounts Commission’s Overview of the 1999-2000 Local Authority Audits to improve the quality of performance information in relation to direct labour organisations and direct service organisations.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive will continue its partnership approach with the Accounts Commission, local authorities and others to further develop Best Value in local government. Best Value encourages the pursuit of continuous improvement and effective performance management. This includes a greater reliance on effective performance information.

Local Government

Mr Keith Harding (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take in response to the statement in the Accounts Commission’s Overview of the 1999-2000 Local Authority Audits that progress in developing corporate governance arrangements in local authorities has been relatively slow.

Peter Peacock: Developing corporate governance arrangements should be seen as an evolutionary process, both as councils develop their performance management systems under Best Value and policy development and decision-making structures following the McIntosh Report. The Leadership Advisory Panel has been working with councils as they have undertaken self-reviews of those structures. The key areas which have formed the basis of councils’ reviews and the work of the panel have been openness, accountability and transparency. We look forward to seeing the panel’s report.

Maternity Services

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many births there were in Ayrshire and Arran in each of the last five years, broken down by location of delivery.

Susan Deacon: The information requested is shown in the table.

  Maternities 1,2 delivered in NHS Hospitals in Ayrshire & Arran, 1995-96 to 1999-2000

  





Year ending 31 March 
  






1996 
  

1997 
  

1998 
  

1999 
  

2000p




Total 
  

3,965 
  

3,916 
  

3,863 
  

3,821 
  

3,529 
  



Ayrshire Central & Maternity Hospital 
  

3,943 
  

3,899 
  

3,843 
  

3,806 
  

3,517 
  



Isle of Arran War Memorial Hospital 
  

10 
  

14 
  

16 
  

12 
  

9 
  



Other 3


12 
  

3 
  

4 
  

3 
  

3 
  



  p Provisional.

  Source: ISD Scotland, SMR02 (at March 2001).

  Notes:

  1. Maternity is a pregnancy resulting in a live or still birth, where multiple births are counted only once.

  2. Excludes home births and births at non-NHS hospitals.

  3. Due to the small number involved, hospital details are not shown, although these figures include a small number of births at Crosshouse Hospital, Davidson Cottage Hospital and The Ayr Hospital.

Maternity Services

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many births in Ayrshire and Arran in each of the last five years followed complex or high-risk pregnancies.

Susan Deacon: The information requested is not available centrally as there is no formal definition of pregnancies which are classed as complex or high risk.

Maternity Services

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, under the Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland , areas with more than approximately 3,000 births per year should be served by more than a consultant-led maternity unit with a full range of services and a tertiary location consultant-led specialist maternity unit.

Susan Deacon: The Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland recommends that areas with more than approximately 3,000 births per year should be served by a consultant-led specialist maternity unit with access to neonatal intensive care and access to neonatal surgery and adult intensive care. This will also include midwifery managed care.

Maternity Services

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take with regard to any change in maternity provision proposed by a health board which does not fulfil the levels of care model for childbirth set out in the Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland .

Susan Deacon: NHS boards have been asked to test their strategies against the Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland and a national group will be set up to implement the framework, and this will include developing a performance management framework to be used in assessing implementation. The implementation will also involve the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland who will develop a range of standards flowing from the framework and this will also monitor progress on implementation.

Medical Research

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what allocation of NHS funding has been made to the Medical Research Council or other research bodies to develop preventative and treatment measures in respect of tuberculosis.

Malcolm Chisholm: The funding of the Medical Research Council is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

  Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Executive Health Department is aware of 95 recently completed or on-going studies into tuberculosis in the UK. One of these was carried out in Scotland and received funding of £66,645 from CSO. Details of the projects are available from the National Research Register, a copy of which is in the Scottish Parliament’s Reference Centre.

New Opportunities Fund

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11262 by Mr Jack McConnell on 1 March 2001, how many teachers took part in the New Opportunities Fund ICT training and what conclusions it has drawn or expects to draw from the 27 evaluation questionnaire responses received between 1 April 2000 and 28 March 2001.

Mr Jack McConnell: The latest take-up data provided by the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) confirmed that 11,927 teachers and school librarians had signed up for the programme in Scotland at 31 December 2000. Figures from NOF are based on returns made by approved training providers. Data for the next period are due in mid-May 2001.

  The 27 evaluation questionnaire responses in Scotland represent too small a statistical sample from which to draw any firm and accurate conclusions about the training. The NOF is currently looking at options for encouraging greater take-up of the evaluation questionnaire.

  In addition, HM Inspectorate of Education is currently conducting a Scottish electronic survey of trainees’ views on the quality of the training as part of its remit to provide quality assurance of the programme in Scotland, and a UK-wide Aspect Report will be produced within a few months.

Nursery Education

Tricia Marwick (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to initiate an inquiry into the pay and conditions of nursery nurses.

Nicol Stephen: I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1O-3109 on 15 March 2001.

Scottish Arts Council

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanism exists for liaison between the Scottish Arts Council and local authorities.

Allan Wilson: The Scottish Arts Council (SAC) has three funding programmes specifically designed to support local authority arts provision and policies. It liaises with individual local authorities both directly and collectively via the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) on a range of issues related to funding programmes, development projects and the exchange of information.

Teacher Training

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what proposals it has for developing teacher training to meet the demand for new teachers arising out of the McCrone settlement.

Mr Jack McConnell: We have consulted with all of the main stakeholders on the scope and shape of the review of initial teacher education which the agreement asks the Executive to take forward. I announced the details of the review on Thursday 15 March 2001. Details are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre.

  We are working with those involved in teacher workforce planning to refine estimates of the number of additional teachers who would be required in future, taking account of the agreement on teachers’ conditions and pay and other factors, such as the trends in pupils numbers; and to put in place the necessary steps to recruit and train them.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the additional £5 million for visitscotland for marketing purposes will be made available.

Ms Wendy Alexander: The additional funding is available now.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made and to whom to secure new direct flights into Scotland to address the effect of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak on the tourism sector.

Ms Wendy Alexander: No representations have been made specifically in response to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. The need is for immediate and practical measures to help affected businesses. On 28 March, I announced additional funding for visitscotland and for the Enterprise Networks, which has enabled them to provide this assistance. I also announced a package of measures to help affected businesses with their rates.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were employed in each tourist information centre in each year since 1995, broken down by area tourist board.

Ms Wendy Alexander: This is an operational matter for the area tourist boards.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by the Scottish Tourist Board and visitscotland on (a) staff, (b) marketing and (c) accommodation in each year since 1995.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were employed by the Scottish Tourist Board and visitscotland on marketing in each year since 1995.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were employed by the Scottish Tourist Board and visitscotland in each year since 1995.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many employees of the Scottish Tourist Board and visitscotland attended Tartan Day in the USA in 2000 and how many are attending in 2001.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by the Scottish Tourist Board and visitscotland in promoting golfing activities in each year since 1995.

Ms Wendy Alexander: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-14728 on 17 April 2001.

Vaccines

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-2864 by Susan Deacon on 1 February 2001, whether a secure supply of BCG vaccinations is now assured for schoolchildren in Scotland.

Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-14479 on 6 April 2001.

Water Charges

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how the figures quoted by the Deputy Minister for Rural Development in Parliament on 4 April 2001 (Official Report, col. 1249) in relation to the cost to the voluntary sector of the removal of water rates reliefs were calculated, whether any check was made of their accuracy and whether any assessment of the economic impact of the proposals was carried out.

Ross Finnie: The figures quoted by the Deputy Minister on 4 April were supplied by the water authorities. They are based on reliefs actually granted to the relevant customer group. Though no assessment of the economic impact of the proposals has been made, the withdrawal of reliefs is being phased over five years to give the affected organisations time to adjust.